No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
by BridgitKiido
Summary: Somewhat of a sequel to Circles. Roy, now a father himself, had once committed the ultimate sin. Now, his past has come back to haunt him, but perhaps he's got a guardian angel... Definite Royai, minor EdWin. Discontinued
1. Prelude

**No Good Deed Goes Unpunished**

by BridgitKiido

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist belongs to Hiromu Arakawa. Not me. Although I'd love to. If I did, however, Ling would be a prominent character in the anime as well as the manga. He's not even mentioned in the anime. But enough about Ling.

Timeline: This fic is based on Fullmetal Alchemist's _anime_ timeline, after the movie. In fact, it takes place shortly after "Circles", a one-shot of mine. It's not necessary to read that though, as I'll explain everything that happened there that's relevant.

* * *

**Prelude**

Maes Hughes had been a great man. He was a loving father, a loyal subordinate (although he could be a bit off-topic at times), and a good friend.

And then, he had gotten himself shot.

Roy Mustang had always thought that it was partially his fault that Maes had been killed that night. No matter how many times anyone tried to console him, he always thought that he was to blame.

And that's what drove him to committing the ultimate sin – human transmutation.

He knew the consequences. He had seen what had happened to the Elric Brothers when they had done it. Most of the bones in his body were telling him not to do it.

But his heart wouldn't listen, and one night, when he had a couple days off from his military duties, he gathered together all of the ingredients in a large pot, drew the circle, placed a single strand of Maes' black hair fished off of the man's uniform in the center, and placed his hands on the outside edge of the circle.

Immediately, Roy knew he had done the wrong thing. The transmutation went berserk, destroying many glass objects in the room. Roy was unable to escape unscathed either – most of the nerves that sent messages from his left eye were taken. And as for what he created…

Well… it looked _sort of_ like Maes Hughes.

Sort of.

…Kind of.

…Not really.

(It was a very lucky thing that Roy had done this in the basement of his own house without anyone else around. Otherwise, he would have been arrested for this… or worse.)

Roy eventually left… whatever he had created down in the basement. His eye wasn't bleeding or anything – the nerves had simply vanished. And he still had one connecting, so he could see a little bit out of his left eye.

His right eye had always been the stronger one, anyway.

He tried not to let it faze him, especially when the other military personnel were around. In fact, not even Lieutenant Hawkeye noticed a difference in his actions.

And it wasn't as though keeping up his work ethic was much of a problem – Roy had been a rather slothful person to begin with.

It was rather difficult though, which made things almost a blessing when Frank Archer managed to catch him unawares as he escaped the Fuhrer's burning mansion with Bradley's adopted son. The other colonel shot him in the left eye and would have done more damage except Riza killed him first. Roy probably would have died if the Lieutenant hadn't brought him to the hospital.

When things were sufficiently healed, Roy had to wear an eye patch because his left eye was beyond repair. It wasn't too hard to adjust, however, as said eye had been going bad for several months anyway.

Eventually, Roy even got over Edward Elric's disappearance. After all, the boy had been like a son to him… almost. More like an officer who was quite fun to tease (especially about his height or lack thereof) and had begun to grow on him.

A parliamentary system had been developed in Amestris after Fuhrer Bradley's death, so Roy never did realize his dream of becoming the Fuhrer. Even so, he did his best to help his country, although he retired at a young age. This was in part due to his injuries, but also in part because he had proposed to Miss Riza Hawkeye.

The two of them were married and lived in Roy's house. He had eventually cleaned the basement after… that incident, but he hadn't stepped foot in there for years, so it was quite dusty.

Eventually, Riza got pregnant, and about five months through said pregnancy, the Elric Brothers re-appeared… in the dusty basement. Everyone was overjoyed to see them, and the brothers were happy to be home again as well, although whenever they were asked anything about the other side of the Gate, they could not seem to remember any details as anything except obscure dreams. Everyone figured that this was just the passage fee that the Gate had taken from them when they passed through once again – all of their memories of the Gate and what lay beyond in exchange for going back to their lives in Amestris. Neither of them could use the clapping alchemy anymore either, but somehow it was all okay, and neither of them had any regrets.

Four months later, Riza gave birth to a healthy baby boy who looked just like Roy, except for the eyes – he had Riza's eyes. The two of them had mutually decided to name the little boy Maes, after the man who had died because he collected too much information, partially in order to preserve Maes Hughes' memory and partially in hopes that their child would grow up to be intelligent as well.

All this time, however, an entity had been watching from the shadows. A mysterious entity with green, cat-like eyes…

* * *

_Author's Note: The title is derived from a saying that I picked up from my family. It's fairly self-explanatory. If you think you've figured something out about the plot, please don't state the specifics of it in your review but merely allude to the fact that you think you know something, just so that in case you are correct your review doesn't wind up providing spoilers for others accidentally. I might ask over the personal messaging system to hear what you've figured out, although I won't specifically state whether you're correct or not. Please review though, even if all you have to say is "good job" or "this story has no point so just shut up and stop writing junk."_


	2. Chapter 1

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

by BridgitKiido

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist does not belong to me. Although I own eight volumes of the manga (one of which is in French) and a copy of the first DVD… but that doesn't count. Besides, if I owned it, the events of episode 25 would not have occurred the way they did.

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**Chapter 1**

Baby Maes thrived over the first few months of his life. Roy and Riza turned out to be excellent parents, although that alone could not completely explain how Maes was constantly smiling. He rarely ever cried (well, except for when he was hungry), and smiled especially brightly whenever both of his parents were together.

Just a few months after Maes Mustang's birth, Riza was doing some of her daily chores when the doorbell rang. It was Winry, there to deliver a message:

"Just last night, Ed took me to dinner and proposed to me. Miss Riza, I'm so excited – Ed and I are getting married!"

Riza immediately congratulated Winry happily and invited her inside to have a drink in celebration while they waited for Roy to return home from his errand so they could tell him the good news. No one in the house, however, seemed as excited as baby Maes, who began to happily laugh and squirm about in his crib without running out of energy for several minutes.

* * *

Envy was not happy.

Somehow, in the transmutation that had created a large gateway between Amestris and Germany, he had been transferred beyond the Gate yet _again_, back to Amestris where everything had begun. Except, he hadn't been transferred right away; he had sort of floated within the gate for a while; much as he hated to say it, he sort of felt how Wrath had felt for all of those years when he had been stuck beyond the gate. It was not a pleasant experience in the least.

However, just a couple months ago, the Gate had opened again, and Envy had been pulled back to Amestris. This had been the same phenomenon that had brought Edward and Alphonse Elric across the Gate, but Envy didn't know that.

Now, Envy had to live in Amestris amongst humans, whom he hated, all the while without a reason for living. At least while Hohenheim and the Elric brothers had been around, he'd made it his purpose to kill them. But without them around to make their lives a living nightmare… why did he exist? Yes, as cliché as it sounded, Envy _envied_ the humans; after all, they had a purpose in life, even if they couldn't see it, while he had already completed his and still existed.

He was wandering randomly through the forested area outside Central when he came across a familiar figure. Said figure, apparently male, had slightly messy black hair that all pointed toward the back except for a single long cowlick, and his chin had a slight shadow of black hair. Deep green eyes hid behind a pair of rectangular glasses, showing a relatively blank expression on what might have been an otherwise wise face. His clothing consisted of black slacks, shoes, shirt, and jacket that, if it had been a different color, could have easily passed for one given out by the military.

All Envy could say as he noticed this figure, however, was, "Oh, it's you."

All the figure could say in reply was, in a tone somewhere between blank and annoyed, "Haven't seen you in a while."

"You're still upset about me not telling Dante about you?" Envy asked. "I told you at the time that there were already seven of us, and an eighth would not fit in." When the figure didn't reply, Envy continued, "However, as it's just you and me now… I think it's time you had a name, don't you?

"Let's see... Envy's taken by me, of course. You could be Greed… no, that name is fairly cursed. Well… I've got it, you can be the new Pride. I'm sure the late Fuhrer won't mind."

"Pride, hmm," the figure pondered as he scratched at the back of his neck, upon which a bright red Ouroboros tattoo was stamped. "That sounds like a good name."

Envy muttered to himself, "Yeah, Pride fits him. After all, the man he was modeled after… that troublemaker, Maes Hughes… in all my existence, I have never seen another man with more pride in his family."

* * *

As Maes continued to grow, he became a charming boy of four. He never lost the smile that he had always had as a baby, nor did he lose the particular shade of green that his eyes had turned out to be. It seemed unusual for a green-eyed child to be born to two parents with brown eyes, one's a shade or two darker than the other's, but both of them had at least one green-eyed relative, so the possibility for it certainly existed.

One day, however, it was determined that there were things that could cause Maes to stop smiling, at least for a few minutes.

"Papa," Maes asked as he walked alongside Roy through the graveyard, "where are we going?"

Roy smiled weakly and replied, "I'm going to introduce you to an old friend of mine."

They stopped in front of a grave stone that read, 'Maes Hughes'. Roy remained quiet for a few minutes before telling his son, "Maes, this is Maes Hughes. He was my best friend, as well as your name sake. He would have also been your godfather, except…"

Maes clutched his father's leg timidly. Tears welled in his eyes as he attempted to look away from the stone, saying, "Papa, I don't like it here. It feels sad and lonely here."

Roy looked at his son and replied, "I suppose we can go home, if you really don't feel comfortable here." He then placed the bouquet of white flowers that he had brought on the ground in front of the grave, absentmindedly rubbing his eye patch as he said, "I'll come back later, Hughes."

Roy and Maes then left the graveyard, the only proof of them ever having come being the flowers left behind.

* * *

_Author's Note: My experiences in advanced placement biology strike again…I couldn't really tell what color Roy's eyes were, so I just assumed brown. If it's not really… please don't hurt me, but I'm not changing it. And no, Envy is not there to be anything other than a side villain. Do you really think that I would give this story over to that palm tree? And please don't hurt me for bringing in yet another instance of Maes!Pride… Anyway… sorry it took so long to update this, and for the lame ending of this chapter… I know how I want the story to end, but I'm sort of struggling with the middle. I'd ask for ideas, but that would require me revealing something important… oh well. Could you please leave me a small review, even if it says something along the lines of "you stink"? I would really appreciate it._


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